The BMA said taxpayer money should be ‘used to support overstretched NHS services’ instead of funding ‘multi-million pound private contracts’. But a Virgin Care spokesperson stated that the company have yet to make a profit.

The 400 contracts won by Virgin Care include a three year contract to run a GP surgery in Bedfordshire worth £509,000, a £700m contract to run 200 health and social care services in Bath and North East Somerset, which was awarded in November 2016, and a contract to run GP surgeries in Essex.

BMA consultants committee chair, Dr Robert Harwood, said he had ‘concerns’ about increasing the role of independent providers in the NHS and the impact it would have on services.

Dr Harwood said: ‘We firmly believe that the NHS should be publicly funded and publicly provided, and that ultimately the introduction of a competitive procurement framework has been, and will continue to be, detrimental to the health service.’

He added: 'At a time when the NHS is facing huge financial pressure, it is vital that taxpayers money is used to support overstretched NHS services to provide high-quality, safe care to patients, not to fund multi-million pound private contracts.’

However, a Virgin Care spokesperson said the company had not made a profit to date, and were ‘investing all money in delivering and improving the services we run’.

They added: ‘For more than 10 years we have been supporting the NHS and local authorities to deliver health and care services. In that time we have saved the taxpayer millions and delivered the plans asked for by the NHS – 93% of people rating our services say they’d recommend them.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said that private sector spending by the NHS ‘remains proportionally low’ as spending on the NHS has increased.

The spokesperson said: ‘We remain clear that the NHS will remain free at the point of use both now and in the future. Any decisions about the use of the private sector are taken by local doctors who know their patients best.’

I love that this headline shares the Pulse front page with “Government serious about supporting GP partnership model”.
So how many new GMS contracts have been awarded in recent years? (clue- it rhymes with “hero”)
And how many APMS contracts to the likes of Virgin?
Empty words vs meaningful actions.